Chapter Text
Six minutes and Twenty One seconds Post Earth-TRN1042 Incident.
He changes.
It’s almost instantaneous as when a dimension takes a sudden turn for the worst and buckles in on itself rapidly.
I mean, if you think about it, watching your daughter- whether she be yours, or yours from said dimension that you infiltrate just for a scrap of shocking serotonin -glitch violently in your arms and is screaming your name can do certain things to a person. Like changing them.
He changes.
In one singular moment, he changes.
It’s almost as if you were standing outside of a grand house; Strong, thick, pillars. Made from the darkest marble you can find, decorated with intricate webbing and sinewy spiders carved deep into the surface. The stone work is just as dark to match. Red and blue tinted stained glass windows stand grand, the shape of a little girl passes by from behind them. Her laughter echoes around. Then suddenly, the entire house goes dark.
In one single flip on the panel, it kills every light in the house, and he changes.
He changes, and the dimension ripples in response like a sick joke. More people scream out as their loved ones crumple in a pile of glitches. The dimension quakes with laughter at his change, buildings implode into triangular colors. It sneers cruelly down at him as it rips away everything in one breath, just to watch him change.
He changes. Peter B. Parker feels it deep in his gut before he can turn his head toward his friend.
He changes, and Peter B. Parker feels every hair on his body stand on end. His body lighting up with a burning shockwave of tingles. Warning him that this change?
Well, it’s for the worst.
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Four Hours Post Earth-TRN1042 Incident.
It’s deathly silent in the tall and spacious halls of Spider Society HQ. The erasure of Earth-TRN1042 haunts the very structure. No spider dares step foot inside.
After all, the doors are locked up tight in lockdown, everyone has strict orders to stay in their own dimension until further notice.
It’s haunting, it’s got Peter pacing as his tingle rapidly bounces through every nerve.
“Peter.”
“I know, I know, I just—“ he stops to bury his face deep in his hands. Fingers digging at his temples to try and ground himself. He wants to be home, he wants to be with MJ & Mayday, but he can’t.
He can’t step foot through a portal that he fears may collapse in on itself and glitch him out of existence.
His tingle gently alerts him of someone to his left, his shoulder tenses up before he has to remind himself it’s just Jessica.
Breath. In. Out. In. And out. It’s Jess. Jessica Drew. Spider woman from Earth-404. She’s here with me, she is not a threat.
His hands slip down his face and he looks at her. She gives him a small tight lipped smile before slowly placing her hand on his shoulder. Her knuckles are bruised and bloody. Sleeves of her suit ripped up revealing deep claw marks against her dark skin.
“Are you with me?” Her voice is soft, it trembles a little at the end. He can see the dried tears that dripped down her face hours earlier. He thinks she may start crying again when he sees the shine in her eyes.
“Peter?” He quickly nods as her voice reaches him again. He’s quick to reach up and cover her hand with his, giving it a small squeeze.
“Yeah. I’m with you.” Peter watches as a small bit of tension leaves her face. She leans into him with a sigh. “You should go get checked out, make sure everything’s okay, the baby—“
Jess is quick to shake her head.
“I’m okay, he didn’t,” she pauses, closing her eyes tightly, a tear dripping down her cheek. “He didn’t go after me like he did you.”
Images flash across his mind, flashes of colour, red and blue turning on him in his grip, fangs snapping too close to his neck, and talons digging into him with the intent to kill.
He doubles over as bile rises up his throat too quickly to swallow back down. Vomit hits the white floor with a sickening splat. Peter can barely hear Jess calling his name, he can barely feel the hand rubbing his back in a shitty attempt at comfort.
What just happened. What the FUCK just happened.
His tingle takes up that awful burning feeling again, lighting up every nerve as if it were a match. It’s starting to make his skin crawl.
“Peter. Peter please, I need- I need to sit down.” He’s quick to offer her support as her knees buckle, the stress of everything that just went down is way too much to put on her. It’s too much for either of them, or any spider for that matter.
“I’ve got you.” He slurs through bile coated teeth. Peter is pretty sure he’s sitting in his own vomit but honestly couldn’t give a shit. His arms are tight around Jess’ shoulders and chest to keep her steady as she leans her weight into him. Her hands on the swell of her belly as she buries her face into Peter's arms.
“What happened? Oh god Peter—“ a sob shakes her body as she bites out the next words, “Peter, what just happened?”
His tongue feels swollen in his mouth as Jess breaks down into sobs. He doesn’t know what to say, he doesn’t know what to do. What is anyone supposed to do in a situation like this?
No one could have predicted this. The entire collapse of a dimension. Every spider across the multiverse has felt it, it was a sudden uneasy tingle that started deep in Peter's gut before he got the frantic call for help. Then, it was gone, in a little under two hours things went banana’s cream puddin’ and they watched an entire web of a universe crumple up into nothing but an empty void.
When it was down to the wire, when the flashing colour of the glitches threatened to take them as the portal opened up, Peter remembers Jess’s frantic screams. He remembers looking around wildly for her, he remembers the sudden shift in the air that tilted him on his own axis as he watched her get slammed to the ground.
He couldn’t see past the fangs that snapped at her neck, the claws that ripped at her suit as she tried to push his face away. He couldn’t see past the almost fully red eyes that brimmed with bloody tears that stopped him in his tracks, he couldn’t see that Miguel O’Hara had changed so horribly.
Peter couldn’t find Miguel in the feral animal that had Jessica pinned. His tingle screamed at him, it filled his head with his own panicked breathing and rapid heartbeat.
When they finally pushed it through the portal, it took fifty-three punches to the thing's face, six flash bangs, and a chair smashed over its back before it finally slumped to the ground in defeat. The lobby was in shambles, the hallways covered in deep gash marks from wicked talons filled with the intent to kill. The lunch hall was torn apart, tables smashed, webbing and blood everywhere.
All of it leaves a gruesome trail deep into spider society’s halls, into an awful looking room that was padded and equipped to only open from the outside.
A small flash of light catches his attention, it rips Peter out of brutal memories from the last few hours.
“You two should go to the med center immediately for treatment.” LYLA isn’t facing him, she’s facing the door that kept whatever that thing was that wore Miguel’s skin locked away.
Jessica is still sobbing in his arms, he just blinks at the small hologram.
“Lyla—?”
“He didn’t bite either of you, did he?” She’s quick to cut him off, a few screens appear around her and she’s frantically scrolling through them. “I’ve seen that every spider who's been involved has been treated, I’m happy to report that everyone came back clear and has been sent home.” The screens vanish and she flickers in front of Peter's face.
“All of Spider Society is on a permanent lockdown. No one comes in, no one comes out unless authorized. Current authorizations are as listed; Jessica Drew, Earth-404! Peter Benjamin Parker, Earth—“
“Lyla, what the the fuck is going on.” Peter's own voice surprises him as he interrupts her. He watches her sigh.
“Please make your way to the Medical Wing of the facility, I will be with you shortly.” She vanishes, leaving Peter and Jessica alone.
Peter lets out a defeated sigh, he lets Jess cry herself out before pulling himself to his feet with her. She sniffles while taking his arm across her shoulders, together, they limp down the corridor.
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Seven Hours and Sixteen Minutes Post Earth-TRN1042 Incident.
Peter has six broken fingers, a sprained wrist, four fractured ribs, a crack in two of his thoracic vertebrae ( T9 & T10 ), and an almost shattered left hip. There is good news, his left shoulder that got dislocated, and relocated is already on the mend due to his healing factor.
The better news is that Jessica’s baby is healthy, its strong heartbeat is music to their ears. She suffers from a few bruises and a handful of claw marks.
“You may experience some bloody discharge due to stress. If you notice any clots or heavy bleeding please alert your preferred doctor and OBGYN.” Lyla blipped in about a half hour ago. Peter watched her direct the systems and spider bots around them both. One was currently suturing one of the deep claw marks on his torso, its little legs moving fluidly as it follows its directive.
They watch as Lyla keeps a close eye on a monitor she has permanently pulled up to her left. They watch her flinch, then wave the hologram screen away with a grave look.
“Are you both feeling okay? I can have more pain medication administered!” Her fake cheer has Peter’s stomach twisting, he’s sure that he would have thrown up again had it not been for the anti nausea meds she provided.
“Lyla, we appreciate your help,” Jess glances at Peter who gives a jerky nod. “But, you still haven’t told us what’s going on.”
Lyla is silent. They stare at her small image, it flickers for a moment. Peter can see her bite at her lip.
“Lyla—“
“My protocol prevents me from telling you. Its classified information, only available to those who have the security clearance—“
“Lyla. Please.” Jess sounds like she’s on the verge of tears again. Her lip trembles and her hands shake. “Please.” The AI goes silent. She then fizzles out of their view.
“Lyla, you said earlier that we both have authorization.” Peter takes over, he flinches as the spider bot tugs a little too hard when tying off a suture.
“You both have been granted automatic authorization to the facility, based on the fail safe procedure.” Lyla appears at his side. Her exaggeration on the facility part gives Peter an idea.
“Are you not a part of the facility?” Peter smiles as he watches her give what seems to be a sigh of relief. “Loophole?” She nods.
“Authorization to personal AI LYrate LifeForm Approximation has been granted to the following; Peter Benjamin Parker, Earth 616B! I knew you could figure out the loophole. Gotta use that brain more Peter B.”
Peter lets out a chuckle, which he quickly regrets as the spider bot's legs dig into him to keep itself steady. He whispers a quick sorry little guy before turning his attention back to Lyla.
“What happened?” He watches her frown and shakes her head before flicking her wrist, the motion triggers several of her holo screens to go up around them. She pushes up her heart shaped glasses into her hair, for an AI, she looks exhausted.
“Earth-TRN1042 Incident.” Her voice is sad as the screens play out the start of the dimensions collapse. It goes from bad to worse in what seems to be a matter of seconds. Peter can’t bring himself to look anymore, they both had seen it with their own eyes. He waves his hand in a small dismissive gesture.
“Yeah we saw, what we want to know is what that thing was that attacked us. Was that thing an anomaly?” The screens go black, Lyla is suddenly in front of his face. Her arms are crossed and she looks angry.
“First off, he’s not a ‘thing’ .” The screens brighten again, and it’s a picture this time. It’s a little girl, she looks to be about seven or eight years old. She’s perched on a man’s shoulders.
A man who Peter stares at, eyes wide and jaw open. The man is smiling, little fangs on display, and red eyes peeking over dark sunglasses as he stares up at the girl with nothing but love. A kind that Peter recognizes, he looks to Jess for answers.
“Oh god.” Her voice is small, eyes wide in shock. “She looks just like him, oh god Peter, Peter,” she mumbles out from behind the hand that covered her lips, Jess didn’t know either. “Peter, he was carrying her. That little girl, he was carrying her. ”
“Lyla?” He pleads as he looks through the holo screen at the AI. She sighs and swipes the image away.
“I should probably start at the beginning then. Miguel’s beginning. Buckle up buttercups, this isn’t going to be a cute one.” She cracks her fingers, well, more like she does a gesture to crack them and begins.
“You both already know he’s not like every spider here, he’s different. He’s,” she paused, then shook her head, “Miguel considers himself an abomination. That he’s undeserving of holding the Spider Man title. It all started with this horrible excuse for a man.”
The holo screen displays a picture of a tall blond man leaning against a desk. Peter’s at a loss, he’s never seen this man in his life, he glances at Jessica who seems just as confused.
“This is Tyler Stone, Vice President of Alchemax. Well, formerly, Miguel killed him. The bastard had it coming, and I for one can say good riddance!” Peter rolls his eyes.
“Okaaaaaay, Lyla, this isn’t really getting us the answers we need.”
“Hush, I’m not finished!” The AI pouts as she flicks the screen away. “He’s Miguel’s biological father. He recruited him on as a geneticist, there was little else Miguel could do so he took the job. Alchemax had its claws deep in the city. Miguel never liked it, he loathed working there if I’m being completely honest here.”
“Are you?” They both glance over to Jess, her eyes trained on her belly.
“Am I what?” Lyla responds with a raised brow, her hands on her hips.
“Being honest with us? I know you are protective of Miguel, and that’s great, but considering the fact he just attacked us we deserve the truth. That’s all we’re asking.” Jess looks up, her eyes hard. She’s upset, Peter knows she is probably going through the same emotions that he is right now.
Confusion. Betrayal. More confusion. Since being recruited into Spider Society Peter knew Miguel had secrets, ones that he’d rather take to the grave than trust anyone with. He felt conflicted, torn between fear and wanting to help.
“Jess, let her finish.” He speaks quietly, afraid that if he spoke any louder something might happen. Something somehow worse than the situation they were already in. Jess shoots him a look, her eyes narrowed and hands protective over her unborn child.
“It shouldn’t have to be Lyla to tell us. You know that Peter.” There’s a bit of a bite to her words.
“I know that Jess, but it’s all we have right now okay? You really want to go back down there and deal with that thing—“
“Stop calling him that! Miguel is not a thing!” The med bay lights flicker in rapid succession with the AI’s sharp words. She blinks in front of Peter, her form takes on a slightly red hue as she gets in his face. “That is Miguel down there, that is a part of him and I will not tolerate you or anyone else looking at him like some Alchemax monstrosity, because god knows he already sees himself like that!”
“What in the hell does Alchemax have to do with any of this?” Jess is quick to throw her hands up in frustration. “What the hell does any of this have to do with Miguel?”
“ Everything. It has to do with everything, because if not for Tyler Stone and Alchemax’s backasswards way of running a business, Earth-928 would not have a Spider Man. The new age of heroes would not exist. The Spider Society would not exist.” Lyla sighs, her head in her hands as she flickers back to her original golden yellow. “It has everything to do with this, with Miguel. So we have to start at the beginning.”
“Okay.” Is all Peter can muster up, he leans back into his med bed in defeat. “Okay, let’s continue. Asshole Tyler Stone.”
“I’m sure you both have heard rumors about Alchemax, most of them are true if not worse. Alchemax controlled the United States, they controlled everything. Produced everything anyone could need or want. Not only that but the board was obsessed with mutants and superheroes, they wanted nothing more than to recreate those genes. Especially after the war.” She pulled up several holo screens, each playing clips and news articles of the Mutant-Human war. She dismisses them just as quickly as she had produced them.
“Tyler recruited Miguel, he was appointed the head of the Corporate Raiders. It was a heavily secret division of the Research & Development Department here in Nueva York. Its sole purpose was to take over other corporations to grow Alchemax’s image and control.” Peter can’t help but snicker, Jess cocks her eyebrow at him in question.
“No wonder Hobie hates Miguel.” That gets a smile out of her and a small snort from Lyla. “Just saying.”
“Miguel wasn’t so pleased with his position, so Tyler elected to have him moved into the genetics side of things. One of Tyler’s side projects to be specific, he wanted to test imprinting genetic code into human physiology. He pressured Miguel, abused his knowledge in genetics.” Lyla shakes her head as she clicks a holoscreen at each of them. “Miguel’s last straw was this test subject.”
Peter’s hand covers his mouth as he watches what must have been a man crumble to the floor while his body convulsed. He can see blood dripping from his nose, mouth, eyes and ears as he claws at his body. The footage is muted, which he’s thankful for because he can’t imagine gurgling screams that rip out of the man’s mouth as his body contorts in ways that break bones.
The footage switches, and his stomach twists as he sees Miguel, younger, less sharp edges, glasses perched on his nose. He watches as Miguel reaches out to grab the side of what looks to be a desk before dropping his head down to vomit. Another man comes to his side to help him up and he’s shaking his head, lips moving rapidly and hands pushing the man away.
The Miguel, displayed on screen, throws his glasses in a fit, his hands tugging on his shorter hair as he shakes his head and turns his back. Peter recognizes the tremble in his shoulders, he’s crying. The screen pauses, then fizzles out.
“Mr. Sims died. Miguel called a meeting with Tyler and handed in his resignation. In the end, Miguel couldn’t finish what Tyler cornered him into doing. He couldn’t keep torturing people, he couldn’t keep watching them die. It was too much for him.” Peter nodded, he felt a bit better knowing that these horrible things Miguel had done didn’t seem to be completely his own choice.
“I had heard Alchemax was a shifty corporation but this? This is horrendous.” Jessica’s voice grounds him a bit. Brings him back from the image of Miguel’s shoulder shaking.
“And here we thought the Rapture was the worst thing they had created. What the hell were they even trying to accomplish with this?” Peter looks past the screen to Lyla, his fingers fidgeting as he prepares himself for more.
“Tyler wanted a super spy, something to help the Corporate Raiders achieve their goals and gather more intel. It was Miguel’s idea to use spider DNA.” Jessica’s eyes widen, her hands curl into fists as she shakes her head in disbelief.
“As you can see, it wasn’t going well. Miguel wanted no part in it anymore, but Tyler couldn’t let his best geneticist just abandon a project like this. He took Miguel’s resignation a little too well, I should have caught on quicker to what he was doing. I didn’t notice him spike Miguel’s drink.”
Peter felt his heart drop, he sighs and drags a hand over his face. The man tried to kill him? Just because Miguel’s morals won out.
“Oh god.” His head snaps over to Jessica, her eyes are wide as she stares at the wall across from them. “His medication, it’s not, Lyla? Lyla please tell me it’s not what I think it is.” She shifts her gaze back to the AI shoes arms are crossed and body ridged.
“Tyler didn’t want Miguel to leave, he wanted him to finish his work. So, what better way than to slip a drug that binds to your DNA? A drug only your company makes and distributes? I have to give it to Tyler, it sounded like a good plan on paper. To blackmail Miguel with a horrible drug addiction and dangle it above his head to force him into working.”
“I’m sensing a ‘but’ somewhere in there.” Lyla gives him a smirk in response.
“Well, it’s Miguel after all, smartest geneticist on the east coast. He figured if he could rewrite his DNA, he could write out the effect the Rapture had on him. He asked his supervisor, Aaron Delgato, to watch his vitals as he underwent the procedure.” The vacant screen blinks back to life, showing Miguel stripped down just as Mr. Sims had been. Jess purses her lips while Peter gives a soft whistle, she huffs and rolls her eyes at him.
“Really Peter?”
“Listen, I’m just saying what we’re all thinking here. Was it really necessary to be naked for any of this?” Lyla mumbled a soft Peter you pervert, before waving her hand and fast forwarding the footage. It stops halfway through the procedure, playing at normal speed as it shows Aaron typing something into the computer. A sick grin on his face.
“Aaron was alway jealous of Miguel. His position, his talent, and it didn’t help that Miguel liked to poke at him. No one really respected Aaron, he was a lousy geneticist at best and an even worse supervisor. He tried too hard to impress Tyler, wanting to prove something that simply wasn’t there. Halfway through the procedure he tampered with it, he sabotaged any chance of Miguel coming out human.”
They watch in silent horror as the screen flips back to Miguel, he’s writhing in agony, yanking on his restraints and blood starts to drip from his nose. Another smaller screen pops up, they watch had DNA strands rip themselves apart and rapidly pull themselves back together in a wicked dance.
“Two hours. It took two hours for the procedure to be completed. In that time Aaron had already drafted up notes and reports detailing Miguel’s failure, his death. Stating it was an accident, that he went mad with grief, refused to use any other test subjects but himself.” Lyla shakes her head as they watch Aaron approach the now limp Miguel.
Even from the shitty camera angle, Peter could still see the blood that dropped down his cheeks like tears. He clenched his fists as he watched the men kick him off the chair, his body hitting the floor with what must have been a loud thud. Peter clenched his teeth so tight he thought they might crack under the pressure, the guy is kicking Miguel like he’s an animal that had just been struck by a car.
Jess gasps as Miguel’s arm suddenly shoots out and grips Aaron’s leg, he looks like he’s gasping for air as the guy shakes him off. Aaron disappears out of the room in a hurried panic as Miguel claws his way up. They see his mouth move, it looks like he’s calling for help. The screen fizzles into pixels.
“That ‘thing’ that attacked you? That’s a core part of Miguel, it’s a spider trapped in a human's body.” Jess and Peter look at eachother, Peter thinks he’s going to vomit again. “He doesn’t know any better, he’s scared, and he’s doing best to protect himself.”
“So, he saw us as a threat then?” Jess asks quietly and Lyla nods.
“I don’t understand, we’re his friends. Why would he see us as a threat? He called us for help! Then he turns around and starts attacking? After a dimension fucking collapses, for gods sake there has to be more than just that!” Peter can’t help as he raises his voice in frustration. “Lyla, he could have killed someone.”
“Peter, he’s never gotten to this point before.” Lyla is looking past him, her eyes sad. “I’ve seen him act like this, when the PTSD flashback gets so bad that he kicks into spider mode and hunkers down. I’ve seen him so stressed out that he devolves into hiding in his closet with a towel shoved under the door and sleeps for hours on end until he becomes lucid again.”
“So then what the hell caused this? What caused him to go off the deep end?”
“He wanted a kid. Both parts of him.” Lyla’s voice is quiet, she flickers out of existence for a second before reappearing. “You know, they did studies at Alchemax, about animals and their brain capacity to feel emotion.”
A small holo screen flickers to life for the last time. It plays a video, with sound this time. The little girl’s shrieks of laughter fill the room as she’s spun around. The man falls with a comical grunt, the little girl on top of him giggling away.
“Papá! Again!”
“Ay mija, your papá is dizzy! Give me a second princessa.”
Miguel sits up, his small fangs catch the sims light just right as he grins. The girl pushes up his sunglasses and stares up at him like he’s the best thing in the world.
“¡Hola papá!”
“Hola Gabriella.”
She snatched the glasses off his head and ran, her ponytail whipping behind her as she giggled. Miguel leans back on his hands and watches her, his grin slowly slips from his lips.
“Miguel?” Peter’s eyes widen as he realizes he is watching this straight from Lyla’s eyes.
“You know we can’t stay here.”
“Sí, I know Lyla. I just, I just want more time. Just a little more time, so that she can say goodbye.”
Peter closes his eyes, he’s trying his best to hold back tears.
“It’s almost funny, because it was Miguel that found out spider grieve for their lost offspring. Even if they aren’t their own.”
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